From: Jim Weirich <jim@...>
Date: 2005-07-13T20:16:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Gem hangs while updating source index (incompatible marshal file format)

On Wednesday 13 July 2005 02:15 am, Tim Shadel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to Ruby, and gem is hanging when it attempts to update the gem
> source index (which happens every time I try to install anything,
> obviously).  
[...]
> >gem --debug --backtrace install rails
[...]
> Exception `TypeError' at
> c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/remote_installer.rb:222 -
> incompatible marshal file format (can't be read)
>         format version 4.8 required; 45.45 given
> Updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org

It is actually working as intended, except for the hang during the source 
index update.  Gem detects that loading your cache failed (incompatible 
marshal format), so it attempts to download the source index.

You can just blow away the cache file.  It is named "source_cache" in the 
directory returned by the command 'gem env gempath'.  If the `gem env 
gempath` directory is protected, you may also have another copy of the cache 
in $HOME/.gem.

Blowing it away will get rid of the marshal file format error.  I don't know 
if it will solve the download problem or not.

-- 
-- Jim Weirich    jim@weirichhouse.org     http://onestepback.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, 
not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)